Google Pixel 9 Pro Review

For the first time Google sold the full Pro camera in the smaller body, and the 6.3-inch Pixel 9 Pro was the phone reviewers had been asking for since the Pixel 5. The flat sides and a floating camera island replaced the wraparound bar, the Super Actua LTPO panel ran from 1 to 120Hz at up to 3000 nits, and Google fitted 16GB of RAM, an ultrasonic fingerprint reader in place of the slow optical one, and a temperature sensor almost nobody used.

The cameras were the Pro set: a 50-megapixel main, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, a 48-megapixel 5x periscope and a 42-megapixel front camera with autofocus. Add Me stitched the photographer into the group shot, and video processing improved enough to matter.

Tensor G4 was the weak point again. It was only modestly faster than G3, well behind the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in games and sustained loads, though the phone never felt slow, and the Exynos 5400 modem finally held signal properly. Battery life from 4700mAh was a full day with room to spare, the best of any small Pixel, with 27W wired charging that remained slow for the class. Gemini replaced Assistant, and Pixel Screenshots, Pixel Studio and Satellite SOS were the features Google built the launch around. It shipped on Android 14 because Android 15 was late, backed by the seven-year support promise. The $999 price matched the iPhone 15 Pro, and this time the phone earned it.